February 13, 2012

Mark 10: 35, 36- Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”  “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

The longer I look at this verse the more amazed I become. Can you imagine going up to any of your teachers when you were a student and saying, “I want you to do for me whatever I ask?” Those of you who are teachers, what would your response be to such a student. Mine would be, “sit down and shut up.” But Jesus wants to teach them about being a servant (take some time to read the rest of the passage below) and so he responds to them as a servant. I am told, and I believe, that the actual words we use are only a small part of what we communicate. We convey more by our tone of voice, our facial expressions, and even our eye contact (or lack thereof), than we do by the words we select. Jesus was not only willing to teach about being a servant; he was actually willing to be a servant. It may seem a small thing to serve others with the way we communicate, but the truth is, that is the primary way we have to serve others. How many people will you interact with this day? Will they come away from those interactions having encountered the love of God, even if it is only in the smallest of ways? Will they see the Jesus who serves?

Don

³⁵ Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

³⁶ “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

³⁷ They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”

³⁸ “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said.“Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

³⁹ “We can,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with,⁴⁰ but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

⁴¹ When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. ⁴² Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ⁴³ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”